Meet the 3.0 Finalists: Akorn Technology (US)

Across the global food system, one of the largest and least visible challenges is the waste of fresh fruits and vegetables. Most estimates put losses at 30 to 40 percent, and in some cases, as high as 50 percent of the harvested amount. In the Global South, this problem is even more acute. Weak cold chains, long transport routes, and limited infrastructure mean that a significant share of nutritious food never reaches consumers. 

To succeed in these markets, solutions have to meet very specific requirements. They must be low cost, easy to use, and effective at scale. That is the challenge we set out to address at Akorn Technology. 

Our solution targets waste directly at the surface of fresh fruits and vegetables. We develop completely natural coatings that are applied after harvest to slow degradation and extend shelf life. The result is simple but powerful. Fruits and vegetables last longer, arrive at their destination in much better condition, and can be sold rather than discarded. 

The core building block of our technology is a protein extracted from non-GMO corn. This protein has been known for more than a century, but until now, it had never been functionalized in a way that was cost-effective or practical for use across fresh produce supply chains. Our work focused on unlocking that potential. 

My motivation for doing this comes from an unexpected place. Earlier in my career, I worked at NASA, where I was involved in projects focused on providing fresh fruits and vegetables to astronauts on the International Space Station. We were developing ways to grow and preserve produce in space. At some point, it became impossible to ignore the contrast. If we are willing to go to such lengths to deliver fresh food to orbiting astronauts, we should be doing far more to ensure that people on Earth can access the food we already grow. 

I founded Akorn Technology just before the start of the COVID pandemic. There was no detailed plan and very limited funding. What we did have was time, access to a laboratory, and a global network of researchers. As the world slowed down, we partnered with scientists and faculty across multiple universities and regions. Many were facing similar constraints and were willing to collaborate. In effect, we crowdsourced the science. 

This approach allowed us to develop crop-specific solutions, working directly in regions where mangoes, avocados, papayas, apples, and pears are grown. One of our most significant successes came in Ghana. A mango producer supplying fresh-cut fruit to the UK was losing more than 80 percent of its harvest due to cold-chain limitations. By applying our coating without changing the rest of the supply chain, recovery increased from around 20 percent to over 70 percent. Similar results across other crops have shown that losses can be reduced by well over 50 percent. 

Reducing food waste at this scale is not about incremental improvement. It is about making existing food systems work better, especially where resources are limited. That is what we are building at Akorn Technology: practical solutions that preserve food, protect value, and help more of what is grown reach the people it was meant to feed. 

Anthony Zografos

CEO, Founder of Akorn Technology